HOW DOES IT FEEL???

(This post was written a couple of months ago when I thought I was able to post again -- just wanted to share this with you).

To open a newly published book, illustrated by your son who has followed his dream of being an illustrator of children’s books for the better part of his life and read on the inside of the dedication page “Thank God for my mom, my biggest fan, best supporter, and most enthusiastic cheerleader.” How does it feel when you see the results of raising a young man who had the self determination he has always had? To watch him pursue his dreams in spite of those people who came at him with negativisms such as, you will not make it as an illustrator because the field is not lucrative, especially in Iowa,” “You should not take that in college, you won’t make it,” “There’s not enough money in that kind of work, etc.; “yet he goes right ahead and sets out to claim his dream no matter what, and makes a complete success of it. I saw the same drive in his paternal aunt who had no support from anyone except for her God and her determination to prove to the world that no matter what, she would become a success and now they are both acclaimed in their field.

How does it feel when you open beautiful cards from your daughter-in-law with wonderful expressions of love, admiration, thank you expressions and Spiritual sentiments and prayers?

How does it feel when you pick up the phone and a four year old little voice is on your voice message reciting the One-Hundredth Psalm and ends by saying “I love you.” That little voice is five-years-old now and I still have the message he left saved.

Then one day you receive a card in the mail for Easter with a newspaper article about your son, telling a story about an experience he had talking to a bunch of kids behind bars about his experiences as a children’s book illustrator and how he is now writing books. You turn the page an read on when all of a sudden these words reach out and grab you as they say “by all accounts my future should have been dim, but I had three things; I had enthusiasm, a desire to succeed and a mother who cheered my every dream.”

This makes you feel so overwhelmed with joy that tears swell up in you like a balloon that is about to burst. These are not tears of sorrow, but tears of happiness, such happiness that you cannot describe. I thank God for what he has done for me. Many times I wish I hadn’t married the father of my children but when I think of the legacy that came out of that marriage (four awesome sons), I would say that it was worth it.